Apple hot on BlackBerry's heels in corporate BYOD race

The latest Reality Checker report from The Corporate IT Forum reveals that BlackBerry still leads the corporate smartphone market but with growth in the use of consumer products, Apple is nipping ever closer at its heels, writes Linda Endersby.

The survey of IT heads at some of the UK's largest organisations showed BlackBerry is still the corporate device of choice, in use at over a third of organisations, but only 12% of staff used it as their personal device.

More and more firms are hoping to realise the financial benefits of 'BYOD computing in the next 12 months, giving user-owned devices access to corporate networks, and tablets and smartphones have now become a common sight in UK businesses.

The personal choice remains Apple, representing more than a third of the user-owned devices used in the workplace. This demonstrates increasing employer confidence in the brand with 31% of respondents citing iOS devices (iPad and iPhone) as the most popular corporate devices used by their organisation.

Despite strong consumer sales in 2011, Android and Windows Mobile devices are far less popular with just 9% and 17% citing them as corporate devices.

Research services manager Dani Briscoe said: "Mobile security is still a contentious and highly controlled area and many organisations are still not allowing end user devices to connect to the corporate network without acceptance of certain policies, many of which contain the right to wipe the device remotely.

"In 2011, 39% of Corporate IT Forum members already had user access and mobile strategies in place," she said.

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